Bob
by One Nutty Tree
Summary: Connor is terrified of spiders. Just his luck that Abby gets attacked by one.
1. Chapter 1

Abby grabbed the green plastic bucket and grimaced at its contents. Connor spotted her expression and came over to see what was wrong.

"Hey Abs what's – oh." The bucket was filled to the brim with dead flies. Not only did it look disgusting, it smelt pretty bad too. Connor held his nose and watched Abby as she put on a pair of rubber gloves. "That's rank!"

"I've been putting this off for a while so the flies have started to – decay."

"What are you planning on doing with them?" Connor asked, still holding his nose.

Abby laughed at how nasal he sounded.

"It's time to feed bob." she announced.

"Is that the mammoth?"

"No it's the giant spider. You should know; you're the one who keeps naming things."

Connor remembered sheepishly.

"How did you manage to kill so many flies in the first place? Did you borrow a gas chamber?" he retorted.

Abby pulled a face.

"I have my ways. Do you want to watch?" she teased.

"God no! You know I hate spiders, when that thing came out of the anomaly…" he trailed off and his eyes misted over in memory of it.

"I know."

Abby remembered only too well, Connor had shook for the entire evening. When he first saw it he was rooted to the spot in fear. If it hadn't been for Becker Connor would've died.

"See you later. I should probably go fix the ADD. Again." he forced a smile out.

Abby was not fooled; even the mere mention of the incident scared him. Then again, it had only happened a few weeks ago.

She picked up the bucket and headed down to the menagerie. Bob had a large section of it all to himself. There she entered quietly. Bob was waiting there for her as usual. The black furball was around Abby's size except a lot fatter. This was not the first time she'd fed it but its many eyes gave her the creeps all the same. It wasn't hard to see why Connor was scared.

"You're being silly." she muttered to herself.

Abby delved a gloved hand into the bucket and slowly brought it out to reveal a small mountain of dead flies. She started to approach Bob concentrating on not dropping his slippery food. By the time she'd noticed his eyes narrow it was too late.

Connor was walking past the menagerie when he heard Abby's scream. He started to run to the source grabbing an EMD from Becker's surprised arm as he went. Becker, who was curious of what Connor was up to and wanted his gun back, followed. He found the geek staring dumbstruck through the glass of the enclosure.

"Connor?"

The student took a deep breath before running down to the door toting the EMD. Becker now turned to face what the geek had started at.

Abby lay on the floor. The bucket of flies had fallen over but Bob was much more interested in its human prey. Long teeth like daggers sucked at her arm like a vampire. Abby was pinned down by the huge spider and her screams were quickly muffled by its matted fur. It was smothering her. _This is it. _She thought.

Suddenly there was a loud thud followed by several more. Bob felt limp and a dead weight on top of her. Abby couldn't breathe. Then she heard a familiar grunt and slowly the dark hair of the spider disappeared. The whiteness of Connor's face was almost blinding in comparison.

"We- we're –" he gasped.

"We're going to get you straight to the medical bay." said Becker from behind her before picking her up.

He started to carry her through the ARC. Connor followed like a stray dog still panting partly from the exhaustion of pushing a huge spider, but mostly from fear.

"Are – you – okay?" he asked. Abby glanced down at herself. "Did that – thing – hurt you?"

"A bit." she admitted.

Connor glanced down and blanched. Abby didn't think it was possible for one guy to go that white.

"Jesus, Abby that's a bit of an understatement!"

They arrived at the medical bay and Becker laid Abby down on the nearest bed he could find and began to talk to a nurse. Connor had great difficulty in tearing his gaze away from the blood gushing out of Abby's arm but eventually fixed his eyes on her face. He tried to smile.

"You're going to be okay."

"You don't have to be brave for me Connor." she replied.

He put his head in his hands and stopped pretending.

"Please don't EVER do that to me again." He begged.

"Not planning to."

Abby's uninjured arm reached out to touch his face. He flinched.

"Sorry. Everything's making me jump."

"Connor look at me." Connor drew his hands away from his face. "Everything's going to be fine."

Shortly after the nurse joined the pair and bandaged up Abby's arm. Connor refused to leave despite the gore and held Abby's free hand throughout the entire thing.

"Okay I'm going to give you some painkillers. They'll act as a mild sedative but first I need to know, was the creature that bit you venomous?"

"I don't think so." Abby answered.

"Are you sure?" questioned the nurse.

"Fairly. There should be records in the menagerie-"

"I'll get them." Connor said instantly, glad to be finally doing something useful.

He got to his feet and left the medical bay. Cutter spotted him as he passed his office.

"Connor!"

"If you want to talk come with me. Otherwise I don't have time."

Surprised by the response Cutter followed.

"Connor are you okay?"

"I'm fine." he lied.

They entered the menagerie.

"Is this about Abby?" Connor pretended not to hear him as he searched through the neatly filed paperwork. Abby was painfully organised. "What you did was very brave."

"If I hadn't frozen maybe she'd have more of her arm left."

"Connor I saw the entire thing on CCTV. You unfroze, you saved her. Her injuries could've been far worse."

"GOT IT!" Connor yelled waving a piece of paper in the air. They set off on a march back to the medical bay. "What was it you wanted to talk to me about anyways Cutter?"

"Becker wants his gun back at some point." He reminded with a smile on his face. Connor glanced down. The EMD was still in his hand. He was clutching it so hard that his knuckles were white. "I'm surprised they let you keep it in the medical bay."

"Oh."

Connor handed it to Cutter. He'd completely forgotten that he even had it with him.

As Connor walked back over to Abby he noted the nurse's eyes flicker down to his hand and she smiled in relief.

"I've got the record." he triumphantly handing it over.

The nurse skimmed through the page whilst Connor waited with baited breath. She finally looked up.

"Bob?" she asked raising an eyebrow.

"It's his name." Connor replied firmly.

"Well Bob isn't venomous."

"Does this mean I can get the painkiller now?" piped up Abby.

The nurse nodded and injected the sedative into her arm. Connor watched as she fell asleep.

"Are you okay?" asked the nurse.

"I'm fine!" Connnor spluttered. "What makes you think I'm not?"

"You've been shaking for quite a while now. I was wondering if you needed treatment for shock."

"Thanks for the offer but I've got work to do."

Connor started to walk back towards the broken ADD.

"I'll take that as a no then." the nurse muttered.

He was examining wiring when Jenny approached.

"Cutter just told me, how is Abby?"

"She's sleeping. It bit her but she's going to be fine."

"Are you?"

"Why is everyone asking me that today? I'm fine."

Jenny decided to drop it. She could tell Abby to talk to him later at the flat.

"I suppose I should visit her."

"She'd like that."


	2. Chapter 2

Abby was allowed to go home to the flat that night but was told to come back if she encountered any other problems. Connor had to do much more work around the flat due to her arm being in a sling.

"Jenny told me you were worried."

Connor jumped, tripped and landed hard on the wooden floor.

"Don't creep up on me like that!" he exclaimed as she helped him up.

"Sorry." Abby apologised. "Why are you so scared of spiders anyways?"

"It's a phobia I've had all my life, can we please not talk about this?"

"Okay."

They sat down on the sofa together and stared at the blank TV screen.

"Your turn to choose a film." Connor said. He stood up. "What do you want?"

"No horror, no sci-fi and nothing with spiders in please."

He groaned at the mention of no sci-fi or horror but had no complaints on the no-spider requirement. With that, Connor walked out of the room to retrieve the necessary DVDs that they hadn't watched recently.

They didn't have many options. Connor brought them into the living room and examined the small spectrum of DVDs. Abby peered over his shoulder.

"Remind me why we have Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets?" he asked.

"I loved that film when I was a kid. I haven't seen it in ages!"

"Well it's got spiders in it." Connor said, putting it to one side.

"Has it?"

"Aragog is the size of this room."

"Oh."

"Star wars?" he asked hopefully.

"How is that _not _science fiction?"

Another DVD was tossed aside.

"Hm. That leaves us with – Moulin Rouge." Connor groaned.

"Perfect!" Abby exclaimed.

"Did you stage this?" he complained.

She laughed.

"You wish!"

After about an hour of the drama Connor decided to take a VERY long loo break. He spent most of it talking to Rex. The lizard may not have understood but it certainly acted as if it was listening.

"So now she's got her arm in a sling and I've become her personal slave. I'm not complaining, I mean I've loved Abby ever since I first set eyes on her but I know she's never going to let Lester's people put Bob –" Connor shivered slightly. "-down." Rex made a chirping noise and tilted his head in what Connor thought was a sympathetic stance. He laughed. "It's funny really that the only person I can unwind to is a small pet dinosaur."

A knock on the bathroom door made him stop talking.

"Connor you can come out now, the film is over!" called Abby.

It'd been strange without him, she'd even missed his muffled sniffles through the tragedy and his clumsy attempts to put his arm round her shoulder in the typically Connor fashion she'd become accustomed to.

He opened the door.

"Hi. Just been talking to Rex."

"So I heard."

His face fell.

"What did you hear?" he asked quickly.

"Nothing too important." she reassured. "Just something about Bob, now let me in there I'm desperate!"

Connor's face brightened at these words and he stepped out. Abby nipped inside closing the door behind her. Connor turned to leave but Rex's alarmed chirps made him turn back.

"What's got your wings in a twist?" Rex flew into the door with a panicked look on his scaly face. Finally understanding Connor knocked on the door. "Abby are you okay in there?" But all he heard in response was retching. He looked at Rex torn between invading Abby's privacy and seeing what was wrong. Considerably alarmed he knocked again. "Abby?" He glanced at Rex who chirped impatiently. This made up Connor's mind. That lizard had never failed him. "Pull up your pants I'm coming in!"

He started to run into the door repetitively, with little effect at first but after several minutes of ramming the lock broke and the door swung open. Connor nearly fell in. Abby lay splayed out on the floor, it didn't look as if she'd even made it to the toilet. Her eyes flickered open briefly.

"Connor?" she murmured.

"Abby! You're going to be okay."

He flipped out his mobile and started to dial the ARC number.

Once he'd finished the call he knelt beside Abby and cradled her.

"Everything's going to be alright. It has to be, I love you!" When the doorbell rang Connor picked her up and carried her downstairs. He opened the door. "Yes?"

The nurse who'd seen to Abby only earlier that day rushed inside armed with a medical pack in one hand. Connor laid Abby down on the sofa whilst the nurse checked her over. Connor sat by her side in silence as the nurse did her job.

"Are you two together?" she asked, taking him by surprise.

"What? No!" Connor spluttered. "I – just –"

"Calm down I was only asking." she smiled. Connor relaxed briefly then immediately tensed up. "What is it?"

"There's a spider in your hair!"

The nurse reached up.

"Oh yes." she realised and put it out the window. "You don't like spiders huh?"

"Especially not after what I've seen today." Connor admitted.

As the nurse worked on Abby Connor found himself completely opening up to this stranger; things came pouring out, words he'd never be able to say to Abby. As they chatted they joked and Connor was shocked to find that this remarkable woman was almost as much of a science fiction fanatic as he was.

"What's your name?" Connor asked, amazed that he hadn't already asked.

"Caroline."

"I'm –"

"Connor Temple."

"I'm sorry have I met you before today?"

"Not in this reality." Caroline informed him.

She smirked, only she knew just how important that was.

"Is Abby going to be okay?"

"She's going to be fine." she commented before getting to her feet. Connor looked at her in dismay. "Don't give me that look, you've got my number."

And with that Caroline left. Abby finally began to stir. Her eyes opened to see Connor staring at the door. She coughed loudly and his gaze was instantly on her.

"Abby! How are you feeling?"

"Dizzy. What happened?"

"You collapsed in the bathroom. I had to call that nurse who treated you earlier."

"Oh."

Abby remembered that nurse only too well. She hated the way Caroline looked at Connor, as if he was an item to be possessed. Completely failing to spot the negativity in her one word response Connor continued.

"Yeah, Caroline was – brilliant. Now let's get you to bed."

Abby stood up abruptly. Fortunately Connor was able to catch her before she hit the ground.

"Ah. This is going to be harder than it looks." said Abby wincing, but to her surprise Connor scooped her up and started to carry her upstairs, panting by the time he arrived at her bedside.

"There you go." He announced laying her down carefully. "If you need anything –"

"Stay for a bit."

He was startled by her request but agreed all the same.

"Erm…okay."

"I just want to say thank you."

"You're welcome."

"And I also wanted to ask if what you said earlier was true."

"About you collapsing?"

"About you loving me."

"What?"

"I heard you talking to Rex. Did you mean it?"

Part of Connor knew he always had but now another part of him was craving for Caroline.

"Abby I – I – "

"You don't have to give me an answer straight away. It's been a long day. I'm not the only one who needs to rest, sleep on it Conn."


End file.
